'Zola' Movie Based On Viral 2015 Twitter Thread Gets First Trailer

Zola premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival.

Zola, a film based on a viral 2015 Twitter thread made by A'Ziah "Zola" King, has released its first trailer. The two-minute video finds Taylour Paige playing the titular character as she kicks off the trailer saying, "Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense."

From there, the video offers a glimpse into Zola and Stefani's (Riley Keough) new friendship which, just as quickly as it starts off harmless and fun, quickly devolves into an unpleasant experience.

A synopsis of the film is as follows:

Zola (Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress, strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of "hoeism" rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters and other unexpected adventures in this wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale.

Zola, which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, is directed by Janicza Bravo, and written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris. The film is slated for a summer release. Last year, a teaser for the forthcoming film was released. Last year, Paige spoke to Wonderland magazine about what drew her to Zola's story.

"I mean, it's just a young woman, black, hustling, doing what you have to do to get what you want to get," she said. "I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone, and I was finding my confidence in surrendering to being lost a little bit. I was also really interested in the fact that Janicza, a black woman, was directing it. It’s a black female lead, it’s not over-simplified, and [the character of Zola] is beautiful because she’s real. The film looks at the minutia of a black girl doing her hair; what she wears; the things she says — like, those little intimate moments that [show] a fully realised human being, regardless of what she does."